Envoy warns West to respect Kenya as independent state

By OSCAR OBONYO

A top European envoy has strongly defended President Uhuru Kenyatta by warning colleagues and powerful nations in the West against what he terms “wagging our fingers at the Republic of Kenya”.

In a rare gesture, the Head of Delegation of the European Union to Kenya, Ambassador Lodewijik Briet, wants the finger-pointing culture stopped forthwith.

The stance taken by the head of the 28-country mission is a departure from the common practice of envoys, mainly from Europe and the Americas, of condemning and reading the riot act to African heads of Government and State. “Let us stop wagging our finger at Kenya and the rest of the continent. Europe has its own share of challenges already and Africa is surely getting aware of her growing potential, economically and otherwise,” said Briet. The sentiments by the EU top official, who is also a Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and UN-Habitat, come as a big surprise and are bound to ignite friction and debate within members of the diplomatic corps.

Since his election to office a year ago, President Uhuru’s government has had a lukewarm relationship with Western diplomats. Only last month, 18 top diplomats and donors based in Nairobi confronted the President in a bareknuckle attack, accusing the Jubilee Government of failing to tackle corruption.

Curiously, a representative of EU signed the statement sent to newsrooms, which was also signed by among others, envoys of Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan and a representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Speaking to The Standard on Sunday from his Nairobi office, the EU boss to Kenya appeared to have changed tune and sounded friendlier to the President’s administration.

Equal partner

He talked about the need of EU to treat Kenya as an equal partner in development and called upon the West to engage with Kenya with respect, as an independent sovereign State. According to Briet, for any meaningful development agenda to be executed successfully in the region, Kenya’s input coupled with a peaceful environment in the region is crucial.

The ambassador points out that President Uhuru holds this all-important key. “Kenya occupies a very crucial space in the region and the fact that the President has elected to resolve emerging conflicts in Somalia, including calling for a special conference on South Sudan is laudable. It is a pointer to the fact that Kenya has taken a strategic position regionally and it is for this reason that EU values this country as a credible partner,” said Briet.

Briet’s mission to Kenya is persuaded by the fact that Africa is a continent on the rise, “with resources and a very hopeful future”. The EU boss accordingly advises the West to deal with the African leadership on the basis of this understanding and mutual respect. Briet further lauded President Uhuru’s public and repeated commitments to the devolution journey.

Devolution is a key project of the EU and the mission is heavily funding the implementation process, having given Sh3.75 billion to the process for work over the next five years. However, the ambassador’s views immediately attracted the ire of the official Opposition, with Leader of Minority in the Senate, Moses Wetang’ula dismissing the envoy’s assessment as wide off the mark.

“It is common knowledge that the Jubilee government has used all the tricks in the book to push anti-reform Bills in the House, including those targeting the media, police and the civil society,” said Wetang’ula. Noting that EU has a long-standing budget support for a host of projects in the country, Wetangula, a former Foreign Affairs minister, reminded Briet that the money he spends comes from taxpayers in Europe and “it is shocking that the Head of the Union can say such a thing.”

“My good friend Briet should be more concerned about ensuring the money he gives us is well utilised and should be on the frontline to cite impunity and corruption, where he notices such instances instead of joining the Jubilee clapping crowd,” he said.

But Leader of Majority in the National Assembly, Aden Duale, attributes the current development partly to President Uhuru, “who has redefined our foreign policy” with the help of Foreign Affairs Secretary, Amina Mohammed, a career diplomat.

Totally changed

Kenya’s engagement with foreign partners at regional and global level, says the Garissa Town MP, is now based on mutual respect and geared towards trade and development. “I want to confess that even my personal relationship with some diplomats has changed – thanks to the realisation by some that we are interested in engaging with them constructively,” said Duale.

The receptive nature of the EU chief is different from that exhibited previously by envoys from the West, mostly with a condescending attitude. One of the recent “finger wagging” gestures that irked political supporters of President Uhuru, was the warning by former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnny Carson, that “choices have consequences”.

This was in the run up to last year’s presidential poll and Carson was perceived to have been dissuading Kenyans against voting in the Kenyatta-William Ruto pair, owing to their ongoing cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

But the President has not caved in to the threats and pressure from Western envoys, based within or outside Kenya, opting instead to play diplomatic hardball. In one of his most stinging attacks directed at the West, he described the ICC as “a toy of declining imperial powers”.

He was addressing the extra ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October last year.

“The arrogant world police is crippled by shambolic domestic dysfunction. These are the spectacles of Western decline we are witnessing today. At the same time, other nations and continents rise and prosper. Africa and Asia continue to thrive, with their promise growing every day. As our strength multiplies, and our unity gets deeper, those who want to exploit us become more desperate,” he said.